BREAKING: Olympus Sues Current, Former Execs, Plans Purge of Board

The Olympus logo on its camera is seen in this illustrative photograph taken in Tokyo November 24, 2011. Photo: REUTERS

(Reuters) - Olympus Corp said Tuesday it was suing 19 current and former executives including President Shuichi Takayama for up to 3.6 billion yen ($46.84 million) in compensation and that all current board members subject to the lawsuit would resign in March or April, as the firm struggles to recover from one of Japan's worst accounting scandals.

Olympus has lost nearly 60 percent of its market value since the scandal first erupted in October, when it fired Briton Michael Woodford, a rare foreign CEO in Japan, for questioning dodgy acquisition deals at the heart of the scandal.

Woodford, who went public with his concerns after his sacking, said last week he was abandoning a bid to return to his old job, citing a failure to win support from big Japanese shareholders.

An outside investigative panel found late last year that former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada had played leading roles in a 13-year scheme to hide losses from Olympus investors.

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